Chapter 5: Fifteen

The old ones are the best: this is the good old ‘15-puzzle’ with sliding tiles. You have a 4×4 square grid; 15 squares contain numbered tiles, and the sixteenth is empty. Your move is to choose a tile next to the empty space, and slide it into the space. The aim is to end up with the tiles in numerical order, with the space in the bottom right (so that the top row reads 1,2,3,4 and the bottom row reads 13,14,15,space).

5.1 Fifteen controls

This game can be controlled with the mouse or the keyboard.

A left-click with the mouse in the row or column containing the empty space will move as many tiles as necessary to move the space to the mouse pointer.

The arrow keys will move a tile adjacent to the space in the direction indicated (moving the space in the opposite direction).

Pressing ‘h’ will make a suggested move. Pressing ‘h’ enough times will solve the game, but it may scramble your progress while doing so.